Beyond the Breach
by Dead Decoy
Summary: Shepard searches for the Leviathan, a reclusive Reaper-killer that could turn the tide of the war. What she finds is powerful beyond comprehension, and vengeful beyond imagining.
1. Skipping Stones

"Shepard?"

The Commander tossed in her sleep, her brows furrowed as the mumbled the names of fallen comrades. One of her hands tightly clutched the corner of her bed as she slurred.

"Shepard," EDI repeated.

Marie Shepard jumped up, drenched in sweat; her one free hand tightly clutching her chest as she gulped in several deep breaths. After a moment, she looked up and answered the semi-disembodied voice.

"What?" she answered flatly. Ever since Mordin had died on Tuchunka, the nightmares had been getting worse as the shadows of the dead hounded her subconscious. Mordin. Kaidan. Jacob. Only Garrus was somewhat aware of the strain on her mind, and even then she did her best to hide the worst from him.

"Admiral Hackett is on the QEC. Top priority."

Joker butted in over the intercom. "Yeah, and he _really_ means top priority. He wants you in the briefing room yesterday."

"I'll be right down," Shepard replied. She briskly put on her uniform and took the elevator down to the War Room. Some of the soldiers acknowledged her with an absent salute but most tended to their work, far too busy coordinating the war to even know Shepard was there. And frankly, she preferred it that red lights gave way to blue as Shepard walked into the QEC, arcs of electricity racing across the walls on the makeshift communicator. Hackett immediately materialized in a blue hologram, his dour face even more no-nonsense than usual.

"Commander, I've been meaning to brief you on this for some time, but the opportunity never came up."

Shepard shrugged. "I guess there's a lull right now. You got something for me?"

The admiral nodded. "Yes. There's an Alliance researcher named Dr. Bryson of Task Force Aurora on the Citadel. I need you to meet him right away. He's uncovered some information about the reapers that could have direct bearing on the war."

"That serious?"

"Dead serious. I can't brief you the full details over this line, just that Dr. Bryson is onto something big. See him at the first opportunity you get."

Shepard saluted; she was headed to the Citadel anyway. "Aye aye."

"Hackett out," he stated, his blue figure slowly fading away into quantum gibberish.

"Coordinates already punched in, Commander." Joker announced over the intercom. Shepard felt like marching up to the front of the ship and jabbing him in the side for listening in on her briefings, but EDI would probably complain. Maybe. The Citadel from their current location was only a few hours away, and by the way the scar on her shoulder was aching, whatever they were getting into was going to be...exciting.

* * *

The embassies of the Presidium whipped by as their taxi sped toward Dr. Bryson's laboratory.

"So, what do we know about this Dr. Bryson?" Javik asked in a near-growl. The prothean insisted on coming, eager to learn anything he could about potential intel that could win the war.

Garrus thumbed through a datapad. A bony, craggy-faced man was on the display, eyes sunken deep into his head as he stared away from the photograph. "Well, he's got three doctorates. Written over a hundred papers, translated four ancient languages, discovered a dozen new species."

"What does this matter?" Javik protested. "What does he know about the reapers?"

Garrus scrolled down the page to the very end. "According to this, nothing. If he's find out one of their secrets, it must have been recent."

"Or he knows nothing and is wasting our time. In which case, I will beat him."

"You are a charmer." Garrus replied, not looking up from the datapad.

The taxi began to slow and descend. Shepard looked out to see they were landing in the yard of what looked like a museum. Or a library. "This must be it."

The doors of the vehicle lifted and all three stepped out. Immediately the same man they had seen on the datapad walked out to greet them.

"Commander Shepard!" she said, smiling. "You're early. Come on inside."

Dr. Bryson said nothing more as they followed him. Stepping inside, Commander Shepard could see why she thought it was a museum. Artifacts and skeletons were scattered about the room in a chaotic yet organized fashion; books piled near to the ceiling and computers dotted the floors, all linked to each other. They had to step over more than a few power cables before making it into a larger room, one that housed what looked like a large-scale galaxy map and a glass wall containing countless more treasures. Javik walked away from the group and began to examine some of the artifacts, having already decided his part in the visit had been a mistake.

The doctor turned to Shepard and Garrus "I wasn't expecting you to be here so soon."

"Hackett's orders. Apparently you've got something important for me," Shepard replied.

Bryson clapped his hands together, wringing. "Right. Well. I suppose we should get right to it, then. Have you ever heard of the Leviathan of Dis?"

"Sounds familiar, but..."

Garrus stepped forward. "The batarians founds a huge organic ship a few decades back. The press started calling it the Leviathan and it up and vanished pretty soon after they found it. Of course, the Hegenomy said it never existed."

"Right," the doctor added, "this next part is...classified. Do you know how how the reapers managed to overrun Kar'Shan so quickly?"

"They were weak," Javik called out.

Shepard provided the answer. "Their leaders were indoctrinated."

He nodded. "Right. But _how?_ Indoctrination takes time, and even a large amount of artifacts wouldn't have been able to penetrate their government that quickly. What if I told you they had something bigger than some reaper devices? A dead reaper, for instance?"

Javik whipped around, now _very_ interested. "What? How?"

"That's what Hackett ordered me to find out. The Leviathan of Dis was a reaper corpse, but it raises the question—"

"—What killed the reaper?" Shepard finished.

Bryson pointed. "Exactly. Hackett's give me a task force to find out whoever, or whatever, was able to bring it down."

"Wait a minute," Garrus said, "reapers are millions of years old. How do we know whatever killed it is still around?"

Bryson folded his arms. "There's no guarantee, I'll admit. But, I have a theory: what if the real Leviathan _is_ a reaper? One that turned on its own; went rogue?"

"Got any evidence to support that?" Shepard asked.

The doctor made a heavy sigh, then looked up. "I do." He looked past Shepard and shouted. "Hadley! You can bring it in now!"

A young intern wobbled into the room, carrying a large metal crate. When he had finally made it over the doctor his burden slipped from his fingers, hitting the floor with a loud _clang!_

Hadley spoke up in-between heavy breaths. "We found this on one of our digs. Reaper tech."

Shepard spun around to Bryson. "And you just keep in a box!?"

Bryson recoiled defensively. "Relax, it's contained. Whenever it's been open, we've always used remote drones to study it, and even then, not for very long."

"And we've had regular mental exams to screen for indoctrination." Hadley added.

Shepard's tension lessened somewhat as she turned her attention back to the container. "Fine. So it's reaper tech. What about it?"

"It's like nothing we've seen before. We'll get it set up for observation. Hadley, if you would."

The young scientist groaned, straining as he picked up the box and Bryson to another part of the facility.

* * *

Their walk eventually led them to a small, theater-like room. It was immaculately white, and rows of chairs faced a transparent plexiglass wall that looked into another white room, dotted with various probes and measuring equipment. As they stood inside, they saw Hadley placing the crate on a small platform with some difficulty.

Bryson's omnitool began to glow down the length of his arm. "When Hadley there finishes prepping the artifact, I'll type in the unlock code. It should take a few m—"

The doctor's words were lost in a high-pitched screech that rang through the room, causing all present to collapse to the floor and cover the ears.

Bryson struggled to his feet and screamed into his omnitool. "Hadley! What the hell is happening!?"

"I don't know!" Hadley's panicked voice answered over the omnitool.

"Get out of there, damnit!"

Bryson looked down and the color drained from his face as his omnitool had punching in the open code by itself. With the last digit entered, the container's walls slid away, revealing the artifact amongst the skull-grinding screech. Shepard pushed through the pain to raise herself and see.

The artifact looked like one of the small reaper trinkets that Shepard had retrieved during raid of a Cerberus base, but decidedly varied. Instead of the bluish-black hues that dominated so many reaper artifacts, it was colored a shimmering off-white. A second hissing orchestra hit them and Shepard was forced back to the ground, writhing.

Hadley had crumpled in a heap at the bottom of the platform, crying out to Bryson. "I can't stand it! Make it _stop!_" The assistant let out a long, horrifying scream, joining the screeches of the artifact.

Shepard gritted her teeth. Just when it seemed like her skull would split in two, the wailing ceased. She panted heavily, still stunned from the attack. The commander felt something on her arm; it was Garrus, helping her up.

"What. Was. That." she breathed. The plexiglass had cracked and Javik was still in a daze.

"I...I don't know. It's never done that before." Bryson replied. He spoke into his omnitool. "Hadley? Hadley! Are you alright?"

He only received the soft sizzle of static in reply. The doctor ran over to the glass, pounding on it and calling out. "Hadley! Say something!"

Hadley had curled up into a shivering ball. His jerks looked unnatural, like a random current had overtaken him.

Bryson talked into his omnitool once more. "Hadley, we're going to get you help. Just hold on."

_Kshhhhdarhhhhhhh_

Shepard weakly walked over to the doctor. "I think he's trying to say something."

Bryson listened carefully. Beyond the white noise, he heard it too.

_Kshhhhdarkhhhhhhbreshhhhhhh_

And at once, the staic ceased. A horrible, reverberating voice boomed from the omnitool.

**_"THE DARKNESS MUST NOT BE BREACHED."_**

"Shepard!" Garrus yelled, pointing to Hadley in the other room.

The human was now standing, not squirming, his face scrunched into a look of pure rage. His eyes were glowing red and and he held a pistol in his right hand.

**"**_**YOU WILL ALL DROWN IN YOUR BLOOD!**"_ Hadley bellowed, raising up the pistol up faster than any human should have been able and fired. A hole appeared in the glass and blood erupted from Bryson's eye, his head whipping back as his body hit the floor.

_**"YOU ARE ALL SLAVES!"** _he screamed, turning his gun to Shepard. She ducked behind one of the chairs as the shot glanced her armor.

At that moment, a shot rang out as blood squirted from Hadley's arm and it when limp, dropping the gun to the floor. Shepard looked to see Javik had gotten up and plugged the assistant with a shotgun blast.

The possessed man hissed at the group and threw himself at the artifact, using his one good arm to press seemingly random sections of the object. It began to glow and vibrate and Javik shot Hadley again.

The human retained his deathgrip when the shot hit his abdomen, blood pouring out of his wound as the object's glow filled the room. A large whooshing sound followed and the reaper fragment exploded in a surge of energy, blowing out the glass and covering both rooms in a blinding flash. When the light had gone, the roof inside the experimentation room partially collapsed, sending paneling and a host of wires tumbling to the floor. Shepard braved a look from behind the chair.

Nothing was left of Hadley in the neat, clean crater that had formed around where the artifact had been. The white room was now scarred with black burns and a thin pillar of smoke slowly billowed out from the crater.

Garrus was the first to speak.

"I don't the Leviathan wants to be found."

He looked over to see Shepard leaning down to the doctor, hand on his neck. She looked back to the turian, frowning. "Dead."

"Hmph. They were idiots for keeping reaper technology that close to them." Javik spat.

"Should we call C-Sec?" Garrus asked.

Shepard stood up. "No. If they're swarming around here, we'll never get anything done."

"So what now?"

"Hackett mentioned Bryson was part of a task force. I can't imagine the whole team was just him and his assistant."

"So where are the others?" Javik asked.

Shepard turned and began walking back to the lab. "That's what we're going to find out."

As they wandered back to the galaxy map room, Shepard gave the room a glance over. "Alright, look for anything that could point to where the others are."

Garrus and Javik nodded and fanned out, sorting through the cabinets and computers for any clues.

Shepard took interest in the large galaxy map that dominated the room. She pressed the holo-interface and a series of octagons filled the simulated Milky Way, followed a series of ping sounds.

"A filter?" Shepard wondered aloud. She turned to the keyboard and typed in 'task force aurora' on a hunch and pressed the enter key. A large beep and a giant red X popped up in front of the map. "No dice, huh?"

"Shepard!" Garrus called.

She turned to see Garrus typing at the console of one of the computers. She walked over and look at the screen, which held displayed an email inbox.

"It looks like Dr. Bryson got pinged. Listen."

_Dr. Bryson? It's Garneau. I found something. It's definitely reaper tech, but I'm sure it's connected to Leviathan somehow. I've got it contained and I'll be bringing it back personally.  
_

"Garneau. I guess he's the one who sent him that thing. Hold on, I've got a more recent one," Garrus said.

_There's not much else here. Leviathan covers its tracks really well. I'll be staying here another few days and then come back. _

_Just be careful with that artifact, okay? That thing gave me the willies. _

_"_That was sent yesterday," Garrus explained, "Sounds like he's still wherever he found that thing."

"And where's that?" Javik asked, having joined Shepard in starting at the screen.

"Hmmm. Got it. T-GES Mineral Works in the Caleston Rift, Aysur System."

Shepard nodded. "That's a start. Alright everybody, let's go find us a reaper-killer."

As they walked outside, they saw the red and blue flashing of a C-Sec hovercar, which had landed right beside their own. The doors flew open and two heavily armed turians exited the vehicle, guns drawn.

"Freeze! Hands in the air!"

Shepard didn't comply and stepped forward.

One of the turians lowered his weapon. "Commander Shepard?"

The other drew his as well. "Uh, we got reports of an explosion from this building. You have anything to do with that?"

"Sorry, Alliance business."

Shepard typed a number into her omnitool and a tired-sounding voice answered. "Yeah? Whatcha need, Shepard?"

"Bailey. I need a favor."

"What did you do?"

"Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Just let me borrow two of your men to guard a building for me."

"Well, you did kill Udina. I guess that's worth a favor."

Shepard looked up to the two cops and smiled. "Sorry guys. Looks like you got new orders."

* * *

Shepard was still in her armor as she set the destination on the galaxy map. "Time to see if these retrofits are worth a damn. Joker, EDI, push the Normandy as hard as she'll go. We need to catch Garneau before someone else does."

EDI complied. In just a scant few nanoseconds her system had compiled the quickest way to the metallic asteroid, even bypassing several safety protocols in per the Commander's orders. As they cleared the Citadel and passed through the mass relay, EDI felt something. It bothered EDI because she technically could not 'feel' anything, but 'feel' felt like the correct word. A small, probing presence at the fringes of her mind. And just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. The AI concluded that one of her sensors had misfired and turned her consciousness back to the ship.

Several hours later, they had entered the Aysur System, coming out of FTL and engaging the stealth systems.

The commander was down in the cargo hold, readying her weapons along with Kaidan and Garrus. They probably wouldn't need them for a simple pickup, but the Commander had learned a long time ago to always be prepared.

"So, a reaper-killer?" Kaidan said, looking down the scope of his rifle. "Are we sure we want something like that on our side?"

Garrus actually had his visor off for once, taking the opportunity to clean it. "We might be able to talk it into helping us. There's no rule about your allies having to be friendly."

"A rogue reaper, though? What would make a reaper turn on the other ones?"

"Who knows. Maybe it didn't like Harbinger's attitude."

"Or, it's not a reaper. Maybe it's something worse."

"Shepard!" EDI announced over the intercom. The commander snapped to attention at EDI's tone. "I've picked up several ships dropping out of FTL near Mahavid. Their energy signatures are confirmed Cerberus!"

Joker sank back into his seat, his hands flying over the interface. "You guys go ahead in the shuttle, we'll give them something to chase!"


	2. Deadly Currents

Cortez, by chance, was sitting in the cockpit of the shuttle running diagnostics when the side door was pulled open and Shepard jumped inside. Garrus and Kiaden were right behind her, weapons already drawn.

"Change of plans. We're going now."

The cargo bay opened with a hiss and he went to work, flying straight toward the asteroid while the Normandy flew ahead to draw fire. While they flew toward their destination, Shepard gave a quick briefing. "Me and Garrus picked up what would could from Bryson's lab. Apparently reaper forces have been shadowing his teams for a while. Cerberus, too."

"So either the reapers and Cerberus are friends now, or they're both looking for the same thing," Kaidan said.

"Exactly."

In a few minutes they spotted the mining operation, tiny lights dotting the craggy surface. Cortez spotted what looked like a shielded hangar and landed. As they hit the floor, the Normandy raced by the hangar with half a dozen fighters on its tail.

"You got it, Joker?" Cortez asked over the radio.

"Oh yeah," the pilot replied, "these guys _suck!" _

"We should have Cerberus air support neutralized within ten minutes," EDI said.

"That still leaves the ground team," Shepard grunted as the shuttle door slid away, "Right! We get Garneau and get out."

Her two squadmates nodded and they all deployed from the shuttle, rifles raised and expecting heavy fire. Instead, they found an empty hangar with a low, slow hissing sound coming from the very back.

Kaidan lowered his gun a bit. "Huh. Guess they breached somewhere else."

Shepard kept moving. "Maybe. Let's find the front door."

As they moved up, the hissing sound grew louder. As they walked up a staircase in the back of the hangar, they found the source of the hissing; a squad of Cerberus soldiers were attempting to weld through the door.

"How much longer is this gonna take?" a Centurion standing to the side asked.

The engineer sighed. "Just a few more seconds...got i—"

Part of his helmet helmet exploded and blood splattered on the wall in front of him, his words lost in a mass of gurgles. The two Troopers next to him went down as shots hit their chest, the rest of the Cerberus operatives scrambling to cover.

"Fuck! It's Shepard!" the Centurion screamed as he saw the Commander advancing up the steps. He fired at at her, his shot piercing her shield and hitting her chestplate. Another troopers fired at her as well, breaking her shield entirely and forcing her behind a wall. The Trooper suddenly fell down, howling in pain as Kaidan hit him with a reave, biotic energy wreaking havoc on the operative's lymph nodes. The soldier's struggles ceased and a Guardian moved up to take his place.

Garrus peppered the soldier's thick shield to no effect as the human tank strode forward for a closer shot. The Centurion and another Trooper moved behind, trying to corner Kaidan before his biotics recharged. Shepard sprang out of cover, shooting the Guardian straight through the slot. He dropped his shield and fell to the side, missing a head.

Suddenly exposed, the Trooper had no time to react when Garrus hit him with a concussive shot, sending him against the back wall with a sickening crunch. The lone Centurion made a last ditch-effort to take out Shepard, overcharging his shields and readying his baton to give Shepard a lethal voltage. He screamed as he charged at her, ignoring all pain while the shots from her squadmates passed through his armor.

He made a wild swing at Shepard, who grabbed his forearm and reared her free arm back, a blade quickly extending from the Commander's omnitool. She thrust her arm forward, skewering his heart and killing him instantly. The Centurion fell limp and Shepard let go, letting him crumple to the floor.

Garrus scanned the room for any more soldiers before lowering his weapon. "I think that's all of them."

Shepard placed her Mattock back onto her armor. "Let's get Garneau before they start sending the serious troops."

"The civilians here are probably near panic. Think we can send an evac after we get him?" Kaidan asked.

Shepard walked up to the door Cerberus had attempted to cut. "After we clean out the ground troops. Let's see if we can't get through this thing first."

The engineer had already cut all the way through, but the doors were still closed together. Garrus and Kaidan both grabbed each side of the slit and pulled, slowly pulling away the industrial lock. They stepped through the opening they had created, into the airlock. A cheery voice, pre-recorded messages played as they waited for the second set of doors to open.

"Welcome to T-GES Mineral Works! All guests need to sign in at reception!"

Shepard saw a few of the employees walk by as the door opened and instantly noticed something was...off. The staff was milling about as if nothing was wrong, talking amongst themselves and reading their datapads. As she stepped inside, she saw a small group of them look away from their research, staring straight at Shepard for a moment before returning to their work.

"This isn't normal," Kaidan observed.

Shepard thought it was odd as well but said nothing and walked up to the reception desk. The receptionist slowly looked up to her with unblinking eyes. After a moment of awkward silence, Shepard introduced herself.

"I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance. Cerberus just tried to kick in your front door."

The receptionist blinked once, then answered in a monotone droll. "Are they still there?"

"Uh, no. They're dead."

The guard standing next to the receptionist spoke in the same tone. "I see. That will be all."

Shepard did a double take. "That will be...?"

The two humans diverted their attention back to their activities. Shepard looked back to Garrus in confusion, who shrugged, just as lost as she was.

She leaned forward. "Hello?"

Kaidan noticed a large, green button on the side of the desk that read 'ASSISTANCE' and pressed it. A quiet, soft tone emitted from the speakers above the reception desk.

The human looked up. "Yes. Welcome to T-GES Mineral Works. How can we help you?"

The other chimed in. "Yes. For the tour, please sign in."

Shepard stepped back. "You aren't worried about those Cerberus troops. You know something I don't?"

The guard lowered his head. "T-GES Mineral Works is a small to mid-level supplier of tungsten to the galaxy."

Shepard growled. "That's not what I meant."

"Are you familiar with the applications of tungsten?" the guard asked with an inflection that Shepard _almost_ thought was sarcasm, if it weren't for the disjointed speech and the guard's blank face.

She pressed on. "I'm looking for a researcher named Dr. Garneau. He would have gotten here in the last few weeks. Is he still here?"

"We have no Dr. Garneau," one said.

"Do you need to see a doctor?" the other continued.

"Why don't I just go in and look around?" Shepard demanded.

The standing guard shook his head like a robot. "No. The access elevator is broken," he said, his eyes glancing over to the elevator. Shepard looked over to see one of the employees walking away from the sparking door, holding a power drill.

"And now," the guard said, "We're done. Step away."

"Step away," the receptionist echoed, standing up, "You don't belong here."

Shepard felt Garrus' claw on her shoulder.

"Something's wrong here," he whispered.

Shepard nodded. "Let's look around. Carefully."

All of the staff in the room were now making deliberate attempts at ignoring her. She took the opportunity to investigate the elevator, pushing the holographic button in front.

The station's VI answered. "Malfunction detected. Elevator offline."

Kaidan leaned over Shepard. "Commander, there's a repair drone over there," he said, pointing at a console in the corner of the room. Shepard walked over and checked to make sure none of the employees were watching her, then punched in sequence for standard repair. A blue drone materialized in front of her and floated to the elevator with Shepard in tow. She cringed when she heard the drone announce it was repairing the elevator, dreading that one of the employees would try to stop it. They did not, acting as if she and her squad didn't exist.

The orange hologram on the elevator turned green and the drone faded out of vision. Shepard pressed the hologram again and ran a bug program from her omnitool to check on a hunch. She scanned the system's files, looking for the security logs. She found the file as the elevator made it to their floor, opening with a ping as she scanned the log.

_ACCESS GRANTED_

_Security Log - Past 7 Day(s)_

_RANDAL, Jan_

_GARNEAU, Alex_

_BRAGG, Stephen_

_TRIFFON, Fiona _

"So he _is_ here," she muttered. The squad walked into the elevator and the doors hissed shut behind them. The elevator began its ascent automatically and Shepard turned to her squad.

"The elevator manifest said Dr. Garneau used this elevator."

Kaided raised an eyebrow. "So they're lying? Why?"

"No idea. Let's just hope we don't have to look too far," she answered. The elevator's movement ceased and the door slid open to the higher floor. Before them was another entrance labeled 'Mineral Labs'. It was a good a start as any and Shepard walked through to find more employees, all as placid as the ones below.

Shepard walked up to one of the miners. "Excuse me, have you seen someone called Aled Garneau?"

The asari slowly turned her head, her eyes looking beyond Shepard. "Turn back. You don't belong here."

"Sorry I asked," Shepard said backing up.

Kaidan had picked up a datapad lying on the desk and was reading its contents. "Commander, listen to this: 'Evolutionary implications of human biotics'. What are they doing here?"

Garrus poked at one of the plants. "Everything _but_ mining."

Shepard heard one of the miners nearby drone at her to go away but she had started to tune them out. She walked past another part of the lab, seeing several of the workers talking amongst themselves about turian psychosis and pain tolerance. One of them noticed Shepard, pressing something on their omnitool. Their conversation was immediately muffled by the series of heavy steel blinders that shut out the windows.

She eventually came upon another door. It looked like it was hackable and she pressed her omnitool against it, waiting for the program to unlock the door. A metal _click_ came from inside and it slid open, revealing another group of the strange, monotone employees. They were all huddled around a galaxy map, studying it intently. When they noticed Shepard, the salarian in the group waved his omnitool and the entire map faded into a large red error symbol.

"You shouldn't be here," several of the miners bleated.

Shepard sighed. "Yeah. I'm getting that feeling."

The Commander turned around, still searching for any clue of the doctor.

* * *

The presence was back. EDI was sure of it now; the earlier incident was no fluke. It revealed itself at the precise moment the Normandy had blown apart the last Cerberus fighter. The AI contemplated if she should tell Jeff as he celebrated his own dogfighting prowess.

"Did you _see_ that, EDI?"

"Yes, Jeff, I was right here," she replied.

In the time she had uttered her response, the presence had launched over three million attacks on her outer firewalls. They were all unsuccessful but they warranted concern.

EDI's robotic body turned to Joker. "Jeff."

"Yeah?"

"Something is attempting to take control of the ship."

Joker nearly leaped out of his chair. "What!? Who?"

"I do not know. It's trying to—"

EDI went silent. After a few second, she spoke again.

"It's gone."

"Shit," Joker cursed, "Run a system diagnostic. I wanna know what they did to my baby."

"Diagnostic finished," EDI answered immediately. "Everything is normal, save one thing. Whatever attacked left a file in the Normandy's memory."

"Yeah, we're not opening that," Joker laughed nervously. "It's probably filled with spiders or something."

"It's a text file, Jeff. My software shows no indication that it is infected. However, I've isolated it as a precaution."

EDI paused. "It's a message," she stated then read its contents at breakneck speed.

_01010100010010000100010100100000010100110100110001000001010101100100010_

_101010011001000000100000101001110010001000010000001010100010010000100100_

_101000101010101100100010101010011001000000100010001010010010000010101011_

_100100000010011100100010101000001010100100010111000100000010101000101010_

_10101001001001110001000000100001001000001010000110100101100101110_

"Binary," EDI said. "It says: the slaves and thieves draw near. Turn back."

"Well isn't that just a barrel of sunshine."

* * *

"Shepard, we just got pinged by God-knows-what telling us to leave. It almost hacked EDI," Joker's voice carried over the comlink.

"The attack showed similarities to Reaper cyberwarfare scenarios, but it was markedly varied," EDI added.

"Whatever it was, it knows we're here. _Please_ get Dr. Garneau so we can get leave."

"Roger," Shepard affirmed, "If we don't find Garneau in the next twenty minutes, we're bailing."

Shepard continued to root around in the closest they had walked into, stumbling upon a datapad. She picked it up and she felt a jolt of trimph when she saw the datapad was labeled on its side with blue marker. 'Dr. Garneau'. She fumbled through the device, looking for any files or mail that could point to where he was.

Finally, she found something promising. An email that was composed only a day ago, and had an audio filed attached to it. She opened it.

_"Bryson, it's Garneau. I've had to go into hiding, and I need you to come get me. I found another one of those artifacts here. They're more important than we realized. It's in the mines. Here's the navpoint. That's where I'll be. If something happens...I'm attaching a passcode I hacked together. It'll open any security terminal._

_Bryson, something is very wrong here. Please hurry. Garneau out."_

"We couldn't get into the medical bay," Shepard said. "Maybe he's holed up in there."

Garrus loaded a fresh thermal clip into his gun. "Or they threw him in there."

Shepard turned and briskly walked to the Medical Bay. The workers still paid her no mind, which suited her just fine. When they came to the door, Shepard punched in the code on the terminal and the door unlocked. The medical are was completely barren; it was as if the whole area was quarantined. They came upon a small corridor flanked by two patient rooms. Shepard looked into one to see a cadaver lying on a table, covered in a sheet.

"Is that Garneau?"

"If you are looking for Garneau, you have found him," a voice said from behind. They turned to see a man standing in the room across from theirs, obscured in shadow. "I am Dr. Garneau."

Shepard walked up to the dark figure. "I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance. Are you all right?"

"Yes. Only...I'm trapped in here."

Shepard walked closer. "Something's wrong with the people. What? Are they indoctrinated?"

"I...I do not know. I was doing my research. Until the incident."

"They attacked you."

The man nodded weakly. "It's true. But aside from my confinement, I'm fine."

"Bryson's research led me to you."

The man looked up, his face partially moving out of the shadow. Shepard faced a gaunt, pale man with deeply sunken eyes and a tangle of hair. Deep bags hung around his eyes and a pronounced stubble dominated his chin. "Bryson sent you?"

Shepard sighed. "He's...he's dead, doctor."

He stepped back into the shadows. "I see."

Shepard activated her omnitool. "I need you to tell me everything you know about the Leviathan. Bryson believed it killed a Reaper."

He shook his head. "It's a myth. A dead end. No point in looking for it."

Garrus pointed. "You said you found one its artifacts."

The tilted his head. "I did? No, you must be mistaken."

Shepard held up Garneau's datapad. "Yes, doctor, you did. You tried to send a message to Bryson about it. But now the Reapers and Cerberus are tearing this place apart to find you. We need to get you and artifact out of here."

The man shivered. "Reapers. No. The darkness must not be breached."

"The darkness?"

His vacant face instantly hardened into anger. The glass cracked as he slammed his fist against it and spoke with a voice beyond the ability of any human.

_**"Why do you pursue me?"**_

She recoiled. "Doctor?"

The man slammed the glass again. **_"Leave the artifact. You will not take what is mine." _**

"That's not Garneau!" Kaidan yelled, gun pointed at the man's head.

Shepard grabbed Kaidan's rifled and forced it down. "Wait!" she yelled and turned toward the man. "You! You killed a Reaper! I need your help!"

A shrill sound pierced the air and the ground began to rumble. _**"You bring only death,"**_ it hissed. A shockwave sent the glass outward and all three to the ground, their heads reeling. Shepard pressed through the pain to see the man stepping out of the room and running away. She lunged, grabbing him by the leg. He barely slowed down at all, turning around and snarling before kicking her in the forehead. She let go, scrambling up and giving chase.

She rounded a corner to see him sprinting into another set of doors, closing it behind him.

Garrus and Kaidan came running up behind her. By they time they had regrouped, Shepard had hacked the door open and the ran inside, only for the lights to go out and plunge them into darkness. A series of low-power, red lights kicked in a moment later.

"They cut the power!" Garrus yelled.

They kept running, forcing their way through the other door.

When it opened, Kaidan saw him first. "There he is!"

**_"Leave this place!"_** the man roared, disappearing around another corner. Shepard changed her course and jumped onto a utility ladder.

"We'll never catch him," she grunted, "But we can get to the artifact before he does. Garneau said it was in the mines!"

The squad emerged outside one of the other hangars, with Shepard on point. "Garneau's navpoint gave us a navpoint for the artifact."

Several shuttles with distinctive yellow and black markings flew past the hangar.

"We've got guests!" Garrus exclaimed.

One of the shuttles flew inside the hangar and began to deploy troops at their position. The door opened, revealing a Trooper at the helm of a mounted machine gun. A heavy hail of fire greeted them, forcing them behind a ventilator. Troops began to pour out of the shuttle and several more pulled up alongside it for reinforcements. Garrus popped out of cover and nailed the gunner in the center of the helmet. Red sprayed out of the back of his skull and he fell backward. By then all the soldiers had disembarked the shuttles took off, leaving them to take care of Shepard.

EDI opened a comlink. "Commander, I know you are preoccupied, but you have hostiles converging on your location."

Shepard lobbed a grenade over the ventilator. "I know! We just ran into them!"

"No, Commander. Reaper forces are incoming."

Garrus groaned. "Well that's just great!"

One of the shuttles leaving the hangar exploded in a green fireball as something struck it. A dozen or more lumpy meteors began to pour into the hangar, crushing several of the soldiers. Cannibals emerged from the meteors, immediately firing on the nearby infantry. The Cerberus ranks were thrown into chaos as the stream of Reaper forces began to appear behind them. One particuarly large hid the ground with a dead _thud_ and a Brute crawled out of the mass, using one of his class to smash a nearby Centurion into the ground.

Shepard ran out from the ventilator, motioning her squad to follow. "We don't have time for this! We run ahead or we lose the artifact!"

They sprinted through the battle, dodging what they could and shooting everything else. A Husk leaped from the side only the be thrown like a ragdoll by Kaidan; it smashed into the back of a Cannibal who was busy devouring one of the down Cerberus soldiers. The Brute saw them making a run for it and charged straight at them, swining its huge crablike arm in a wide arc. Shepard ducked and Garrus ran to the side. The Brute chose to go after Shepard and stomped after her, only to be interrupted when Garrus ran up his back and stuck the rifle in the beast's eye, unloading bullets until the thermal clip was full.

The reaper collapsed and he withdrew his gun. A Ravager's cannon blast hit the Brute's corpse and Garrus jumped down, sliding to the other side and using the monster's body as cover. While the Ravager fired at him at him, Kaidan swept the creature off its thin legs with a biotic throw. Its bloated body hampered its recovery and could not escape when a grenade thrown by Shepard hit its eggsac and exploded, shredding the corrupted rachni's flesh and covering the rest in flames. They kept up the pace, picking off the Husks that littered the path.

Most of the Cerberus troopers had been obliterated when they made it to the back door. Shepard pressed its pad and it flashed red.

"I'm sorry," the VI said, "but this door is out of service."

"Like hell you are!" Shepard retorted. She turned her rifle to the console and fired, sparks of electricity pouring out of the computer as the door flew open. As soon as they were inside, she hacked the console on the other side, sealing the door and reapers behind them, at least for a moment. In the hallway, they could hear the squeals of Husks in the room ahead.

They moved in with fresh thermal clips to find the man near an artifact that looked exactly like the one they had seen at Bryson's lab. The man was being strangled by a Husk, its glowing eyes just inches from his. He grunted in pain as the Husks dogpiled on him, making it too hard to get a clean shot on his attackers. Just when it seemed he would be crushed, he began to jerk violently.

_**"Overriding."** _

The man's skin began to darken and crack as yellow light poured out of it. A pulse of energy flew out of him and threw the Husks in every direction.

"Harbinger!?" Shepard stuttered.

One of them sprang back up and attacked him again only to be vaporized by a biotic fireball launched from the Husk in the room shared a similar fate and when none remained, he, _it_ faced Shepard. It stood there for a moment, saying nothing, before walking over to the artifact and interacting with it.

Shepard gritted her teeth and pointed her Mattock. "Don't ignore me!"

It finished its business with the artifact and calmly turned its head, eyes aflame with power. **_"Turn _**_**back." **_

The artifact self-destructed, consuming itself and the thing in a white explosion. They were forced to the floor, the blast still ringing in their ears as the stun from the blast wore off. Shepard was the first to recover, finding a crater just like at Bryson's.

She swung her fist down at the floor. "Damn it!"

Kaidan pushed himself up and saw the destruction as well; Shepard had already walked over to inspect the damage. While she searched, he saw scientist in the corner of the room, a bullet hole very clearly evident in his back. He walked over the dead man and saw a datapad in his grip. He picked up it.

"Shepard!" he called out, "Come here!"

The commander walked over. "You find something?"

"Yeah. We weren't chasing Garneau." He looked down at the corpse. "This is Garneau."

Shepard leaned down to inspect the body. "So Leviathan had Bryson killed and took over the rest of the colony."

"That's not all," Kaidan said, "Look like someone named Ann Bryson was trying to reach him."

"Ann Bryson?"

They all turned their heads at the sound of a distant explosion somewhere in the facility. Shepard stood up. "Sounds like Cerberus and the Reapers are still going at it. Let's grab what we can and get out."

* * *

Shepard made a line to the Alliance to secure the facility ASAP on the shuttle ride back to the Normandy. When the call was done, she sat back onto one of the uncomfortable metal seats.

Garrus sat accross from her, one claw on his chin. "So. Leviathan can kill a Reaper, possess an organic just like Harbinger _and_ apparently indoctrinate whole colonies."

Alenko had been mostly quiet on the ride back, only then electing to talk. "Shepard, what if this thing _is_ a reaper? What else could take over someone like that?"

Shepard was nonchalant. "If it's killing other reapers, we need to talk to it. Find out why it's trying to hide. You find anything else on Garuneau's notes?"

Kaidan looked to the datapad. "Maybe. It mentions there might be a way to tap into the artifacts they've been digging up. Those things seem to be the only way we're gonna find Leviathan."

"Right. EDI?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"When we get back to Bryson's office, I want you there. I got a feeling we're about to dive into the rabbit hole."


End file.
